Friday, October 4, 2019

Wild Life Week & Why I Visit Forests?






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"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better"...Albert Einstein

I think in one sentence the great man has told the reason why one should visit forests, which is best form of Nature! As come Wild Life Week & many people suddenly remembers about forests & this is why I choose above quote & first & foremost question people ask me when its forests is, “sarkha sarkha kay jato tu jungelat, bore nahi hoat ka?” means why you go every time to forests, don’t you get bored with forests? And on such back ground when we celebrate wild life week, well first let’s know what Wild Life Week! Wild Life Week will be celebrated from Wednesday (2nd of October) to Tuesday (8th of October). To make the wildlife saving plans successful, varieties of sanctuaries and national parks have been already launched in the appropriate localities all across the country. A Wild Life Week celebration was planned to arouse the general awakening of the normal people in the country towards the protection of wildlife. It has decided to celebrate the event for one week in the month of October every year by organizing some special activities connected with the wild life conservation. I have been part of such celebrations & events which are organized mostly by the forest dept & some ngos’ for last many years but it seems to be happening in similar fashion & for similar faces! We are unable to make wild life as matter of interest for the masses (read city or urban people) & that’s main concern (read threat) for the forests as forests are directly connected to the wild life.And I have come across many people who ask me, “what’s need of this wild life week thing in the city as where is forest here & then we have many more problems to deal with than forests!” 

Let’s understand it’s the forests which are home of the wild life & when I say forests it’s not necessary to be Tadoba or Kanha like celebrity national parks but even our Taljai or ARAI hills around Pune (read Smart City) also are forests & not just that going beyond, even the trees around our buildings or the open spaces (read which are not paved or concretized) with some grass or shrubs & few trees are also forests only, by me! Because all these spaces offers shelter & food to many species other than humans (as well domestic pigs, stray dogs, rats or crow type city species) & any such piece of land which becomes home for ants, termites, butterflies, squirrels, bulbul or maina like birds, snakes & many such are forests only! Forest need not necessarily have to have a tiger or leopard & deer herds as forest is space where trees, bushes, grass, birds, insects, reptiles & animals can live together in balance & without getting disturbed by the human activities! Now you will understand why wild life week is more important in our Smart Cities than in & around actual forests where tiger lives!  As these forests are right around us, here in city like Pune which we ignore just because we don’t know what forest is!


Now coming back to the question, “why I visit forests again & again?”; well for that lets take one look at the past 24 hours in your so called successful city life & ask yourself have you really enjoyed every minute of it or learnt something new in it or how many hours of those 24 hours were refreshing types for your mind & body, making you feel life is wonderful! Don’t share answer with me as I know your reply as most of you will say, “forget it man, life sucks”! This is exactly why try to be part of forests where every moment is alive with life & telling (read sharing) you something which you don’t know about life! What’s the biggest different between our so called successful career oriented city life & the forests, have you ever thought about it? Well, here in city, most of the things are dead or mechanical & we just drag ourselves through the deadliness around, may it be a malls or our glass facades which we call workplace Or our posh cars, we try to fill life in this concrete graves by our existence but in forests right from the trees, to birds, to flowing water, to roar of a tiger & even the air, everything is very much alive & there you need not have to fill the place by your existence in it but all you have to is just be part of that liveliness & understand what co-existence means!  
Every time when I come back to our city life from the forests, I bring back something new & feel full of life, I think that’s one reason which is enough for me to visit forests! This is my reply & I think this is what the Wild Life Week should target at than just displaying wild life photographs or exhibitions or presentations from the people who has already understood importance of wild life & forests. Try to involve more common people who has once visited forest (read wild life) & seen a tiger, yes that is important just the way most Hollywood movies needs a big name for being super hit. Nothing wrong as every product in this advertise focused world needs a brand ambassador, a face which will make you curious about the product & what better face than a tiger when the product we want to sale (read promote) is forest! Sorry wild lifers but that’s the way today’s world get hooked on anything even if it’s essential still you have to make them realize its importance, such is the world we are living in & that’s why somewhere marketing strategy to promote forests needs to be changed!

In this rat race of success which we call our life, where most people have decided their priorities as education, job, home, car, shopping, travelling to abroad (Dubai or Switzerland types),I-Phone & the list is bigger than Hanunmanji’s Tail (a hindi term for infinite), here dedicating time for forests comes last on the list or even this item never makes in the list & that is the main reason all across this once forest rich country, we have to appeal people for survival of the forests now. And this is a war just like the war between Toyota Vs General Motors or Geo Vs Idea+ Vodaphone+ Airtel. Only difference is the product forest has to fight hundreds of other products & not just few as well this product has less advertising budgets & avenues in compare to all other products. This is why I go to forests & share whatever I have gained from my trips. When you go to Dubai or some European country, then back home you display proudly your shopping as well souvenirs from all such places. Unfortunately when you come back from forests, all you can get back is some photographs but one most important thing you forget to get back along & that is life! And I don’t blame you as in no school or colleges or at your work place not even your mom has ever told you to go to forests (read any green place in your back yard), spend some time with the trees, run behind the butterflies, look how slow but determined the snails walks & feel the fragrance all these & many more species combiningly makes & rejuvenate yourself & comeback home with a smile on your face! But all you have been taught is going to forests is a waste of time instead study or play or work or go have fun in some mall, shop, eat in restaura & be happy, that’s how you become successful in life! And this is why you ask people like me, “don’t you get bore in forests by going repeatedly there”! Problem is not with all the people who asks such question to me but problem is people like me including forest dept, wild life ngo’s, wild life researchers, wild life photographers only, as when we have realized what treasure forests can give us yet we have failed to make others realize (read understand) the magic forest can do to our life & that’s why people asks such questions to us!

High time we should reach out to people for making them know about things forests offers to us & start from school kids. Go to every school & take them to nearby piece of forest, allow them some time to spend with forests & don’t scowl at them for wasting time instead give them marks for this time. Make use of the volunteers who has lived with forests for such jobs as at start the school kids will need to have a guide who can tell them about the beauty & wonders of forests in their school’s back yards. Involve moms & sisters in forest activities as then only these moms & sisters can tell to their sons, daughters, younger brothers & sisters about the importance of forests in their life via the stories they took back from forests, while these kids grow up. 
Reach out for common men & women who have spared some time to visit forests & make them share their stories on public forums along with celebrity wild life photographers so the masses will know forests are not for just big names but it’s a treasure open for every that person who opens himself or herself to the forests. At the same time forest dept (read govt) must not look at the parks like Tadoba & Kanha as money making tourism cow but see that more people can visit such places at minimum costs. Let people know wild life is not carrying expensive lenses & full day safaris for riches but it’s just being in those woods & clicking snaps by our eyes & storing of hard disks of our brains forever! 

Do something which will reach to common man’s heart & brain as then only the forests will have a real bright green future, sorry then only we the humans will have bright green future or else today we are celebrating wild life week but tomorrow there will be nobody to celebrate “human week”, mind it!

-- 
Sanjay Deshpande 
Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at U-Tube link below..



Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)


http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157627904681345/

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

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Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..
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Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Floods & Abhimanyus' of the Smart City!





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“The further we are from the last disaster, the closer we are to the next.”… Daniel Silva

He has been called his generation’s finest writer of international intrigue and one of the greatest American spy novelists ever. Compelling, passionate, haunting, brilliant: these are the words that have been used to describe the work of award-winning #1 New York Times bestselling author Daniel Silva. And on 25th Sept 19 night our Smart City proved the spy novelist right as the sky kept pouring down wrath & not just water but more than that the havoc which we witnessed due to the rains was of manmade negligence which was outcome of our careless or ignorant attitude towards not just the nature but our own life! And apart from the so called govt authorities (read depts’) which were supposed to act or take precaution as well the builders (I mean every that person who has build something) who were supposedly has throttled the nallahs or streams or natural water carrying channels, I will say even those who has lost their lives & life time savings they also somewhere responsible for this disaster!

Many won’t like my above statement as right now as usual social media, news media, politicians, govt, ngo’s, environmentalists & the common man (read citizens), all are busy in blaming the builders & entire system for the floods rains has caused & the damage made again mostly to so called innocent citizens! More than thirty people are dead & heart breaking stories how the dear ones of families have lost their live while trying to save the family members are surfacing. Rohit Aamle, a motherless boy, just fifteen years of age, died while he saved lives of his grand-mothers’ & there was a man who saved his one child but lost wife & another sibling in-front of his eyes while evacuating the home which has been flooded by nearby stream’s water! And there were two middle age highly qualified techies Salim Shaikh was manager in IT Company & his friend was studying CA, both got swept away with their car while crossing a bridge where water was flowing above the bridge surface level. And then there are thousands of cars & two wheelers in the basements of societies’, which are still submerged, causing millions of rupees damage to mostly middle class families residing in such buildings. And there are some miracle stories also where a middle age man got survived as his car too swept away by gushing water but could hold some bushes in the nallah & been rescued after spending three hours in darkness & water around! Though all were not so lucky & the life as well wealth damage list is increasing every day. Thousands of homes mostly of poor people as they were made of clay & tin are gone forever along with small vendor’s work shops or daily earning means also! At present even after five days of that disaster night, yet the final figures of damage haven’t been confirmed rather the rescue & search operation is on, such is the scene of the Smart City! And just three hours of the rains was the reason of all this disaster, great!

Indeed by now expert’s panels are being interviewed for the cause of such disaster & everybody will have his accounts settled by naming other entity (read as govt, builders, slums etc) & that analysis as well remedy will keep on rolling as usual with snail’s pace so I won’t waste mine or reader’s time with same stuff like natural water flow channels have been encroached, illegal structures to be demolished, flood lines to be marked, let the soil be exposed to absorb rain water i.e. stop concreting every sq inch of the city as nothing of this will stop, people will eventually forget all this & life will be normal, just the way it has been! What I want to put forward is look at the most incidences especially where the deaths has happened as well loss of house-hold things & automobiles, may it be on roads or in buildings, have you all not noticed something very vital which we all are missing? Well, the truth is, WE WERE NOT PREPERED FOR ANY SUCH DISASTER AS FLOODS, in first place, is that thing we are missing totally! And I am not referring about govt rather the fire brigade & police did exceptionally wonderful job with their limited resources, (that again is a part of our under preparation) & did their best to save lives as well wealth but I am referring to “we the citizens”! If we have forgotten (of-course we have forgotten)  few years back floods caused by tsunami in Japan, then go to You Tube & watch the clips & look at the way people faced & responded disaster! It was superb display of discipline, maturity & determination to save life first & if possible then the wealth. And sorry to say the society which doesn’t follow simple rules of traffic such as wearing helmets & driving on right side of road, what else could have expected but chaos & panic, when the disaster like floods has hit them unguarded! Rather unguarded is the wrong term for us because we don’t know what is the guard in first place is an unfortunate fact! We didn’t know how to face a disaster “was, is & will” be the main reason which has made the tally of deaths so high & I won’t be amazed if it keeps increasing with every such disaster! As if we can’t stop a disaster then at least we must learn to face one with minimum damage, isn’t it?

Actually the death of that boy Rohit Amle is not outcome of floods but for the system which didn’t taught him what to do in such cases as the system is so ignorant (read arrogant fool) that it never thought that Rohit will ever encounter a situation where he will be needed to rescue his old & helpless grand-mother from flood water. All he knew was try to take her out of the water rushing in their home to some safe place but how to save him-self while doing so, no one has taught him! What else can be expected in a country which has history of sending a young dare-devil named Abhimanyu in a Chakrvuvha (formation of army) where he has been taught to get in but didn’t know how to get out of it & losing his life in the process! Rohit Amale is our Smart City’s Abhimanyua actually & so were most of even the grown-ups who has lost their lives in the flood! Salim Shaikh & his friend who got drowned away in the flood may have known driving & that friend was an avid cyclist, who has cycled across many terrains, but they both didn’t know this fact about water that even a feet high water when flowing with speed can topple a car & can be fatal to the car occupants! They thought their car can out power the flowing water & they were wrong, causing their mistake them their lives & leaving back sad family! The man who saved his one kid but lost wife & another kid due to collapse of his home’s wall didn’t knew this aspect of the flood, never wait till this late while evacuating in floods that the water level will rise to such height that it will make the walls of structure collapse on you causing death not by water but by debris of the structure which can be of your own homes! Same thing was with a civil contractor who waited in his car but right in the path of water channel & his mistake (read ignorance) caused him his life as the water swept away his car leaving him strangled in the car!

If this is about the deaths then the stories of thousands of vehicle owners who were lucky to survive as they abandoned their vehicles in time but forgot to tie them safely, are not different. They found their vehicles next day in totally damaged condition & miles away from the place where they have abandoned their two wheelers or cars  as the water current has swept these vehicles far away & making far more damage than just submerging could have done. You check any car (leave two wheeler) & see how many of them has got basic things like nylon rope, hooks, flash light as well Axe type tools which are a must to face such disasters! I bait not a single car owner will be having this as the system which he has been bought up has told him just driving & never thought someday the car he is driving will got in water current & he will have to abandon the car! At the same time there has been many incidences on that night where two or four wheeler drivers been warned by the local volunteers for not to go ahead on the water clogged roads but in the rush of reaching back to their home the drivers ignored warnings & ended up risking not just vehicles but their lives too along! Again I don’t blame any of these drivers as none of them has been ever taught neither in schools or in colleges or in their daily chores about respecting such warnings about danger ahead in the time of disaster & act in disciplined manner! And then comes people who lost their vehicles parked under their buildings may it be parking or basements; yes they too were ignorant as nobody ever thought if the wall along the nallah their building has been build breaks how to drawn away the gushing water. No society has enough pumping system in place for the flooding neither any society has ever cared to check stability of their compound walls against flood water! Well, people will say was it not responsibility of the builder of the PMC to check so, well yes it was but whose vehicles got submerged now, builder’s or PMC’s? Guys you do insure your vehicle every year (thanks to the RTO rules or else I doubt how many of them would have got it done in first place), so why can’t you get done safety audits done of your buildings infrastructure against such floods or even fires!

Lastly about gallantry of fire dept & police-men who braved their lives & rescued every possible human being as well animals too! And do mind their bosses may be knowing the threats they face while the men braved but the super bosses seems to be ignorant, reluctant & careless or else they wouldn’t have left the fire dept in such bizarre situation of less man power as well infrastructure. We all watch in Hollywood movies where right from Helicopter every modern machinery gets in action in case of natural or manmade disasters & here leave helicopter, there were not even life jackets seen on the fire brigade jawan’s who were rescuing citizens! And still we are blaming mother nature for the disaster, just because she don’t blames us back but do mind, she replies in her own way which we call a new disaster, mind it  Smart Citizens!
-- 
Sanjay Deshpande 
Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at U-Tube link below..



Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)


http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157627904681345/

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org
Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..
Think Green, Think Life


-- 
Sanjay Deshpande 
Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at U-Tube link below..



Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)


http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157627904681345/

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org
Take your issues to Hon PM at link below...
Think Green, Think Life


Saturday, September 28, 2019

Package or a Mirage for Real Estate!






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“In the real estate business you learn more about people, and you learn more about community issues, you learn more about life, you learn more about the impact of government, probably than any other profession that I know of.”Johnny Isakson

John Hardy Isakson is an American politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Georgia, in office since 2005. A member of the Republican Party, he previously represented Georgia's 6th Congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1999 to 2005. And indeed by now most of the real estate guys must be thinking why they haven’t read Johnny’s above words of wisdom a bit early but then most real estate guys (read builders) were never good at words of wisdom, isn’t it? And nobody respects a profession full of non wise people (read fools) so real estate isn’t also exception to this rule & that’s why even the govt doesn’t respects (read doesn’t care) for real estate! But then in this country which goes by masses & never by classes, even the govt has to take cognizance when “save real estate” cry is rising high, so it came up with a package! Now many will wonder “a package for real estate”, what’s this? As we are used to see food packages for flood hit citizens, we know packages for govt employees i.e. 6th pay commission or 7th pay commission (the list is unending just like the movie  franchise Fast & Furious series, actually), we have read about package of share or equity to board of directors, we even know about the packages of aid given by USA to other countries (read our beloved neighbor country) & then we are known to loan waiver packages for farmers which are dying every-day due to debt ridden agriculture! But a package for real estate (read builders, at least I thought so) was never heard of, isn’t it? Yet the govt has come up with some Rs70,000 crore (please don’t ask me to count zeros on 7), wow, certainly govt thinks of saving real estate one must say!

Now again some (read many) will say what’s the need of saving builders as over years, actually decades, has not builders earned enough from real estate, by selling homes at higher price every day than earlier, rather it’s the home buyers which must be given the package! Actually, I won’t blame such voices as some part of they said is true & remaining part the builder themselves has proved right by their life style or say attitude towards their as well others lives as ask any common man around, what he thinks about the builders & his answer will tell you the story about real estate i.e. builders! But suddenly not just builders but everybody associated with the real estate has realized or realizing that there is no money left here & that’s why package aspect has come in picture. And when I say everybody associated with real estate then our dear govt also has a big part (read big bite) in this association with real estate. So in hidden words govt also is part (read beneficiary) of the package for real estate. Let’s see how, as common man again will say this is some builder’s ploy to make more money again. Well, for that first one has to understand govt’s money making role in entire real estate chain (read profession). Right from charging stamp duty on every deal which ranges from 6% to even 8% of the deal value (under the name of Metro development or Sur-Charge etc), govt starts earning money with real estate. In Pune average 7% stamp duty one has to pay for every document of any real estate transaction is done. And joke is even when the for purchase of a land the stamp duty has been paid by the builder for buying the land from the land owner yet when a building is built on this land then to sale the flats on the land stamp duty is charged full on the flat’s sale value which includes the land cost, in nut shell the govt earn twice stamp duty for the land cost, isn’t it! Means is a land is bought at the rate of say Rs 1000/sft then govt has already charged Rs 70/sft stamp duty & now when a flat has been sold in the building on said land at Rs 4000/sft then govt charge 7% of this agreement cost also means Rs 280/sq ft, means for the project per sq ft govt has earned Rs 280 + Rs 70 i.e. Rs 350/sq ft from just stamp duty! And then even if the flat buyer who has bought the home in said project has to sale the flat for some reason in first or second year then also again on that sale the govt applies stamp duty with same rate, now imagine how much govt has earned here!

And it’s just start i.e. stamp duty of land deal, then right from development charges of local bodies to various premiums for terraces, balconies to passages to stair-cases to even parking lots  & lift rooms, govt earns through every sq ft of area. As well govt charges for utilizing TDR also which the govt itself claims as currency which has been paid to land owners to acquire the reservation lands! And then there are NA charges which are applicable even for the residential zones also (god only knows the logic) & on top of it if some DP (proposed) road is going through your land then to use that area for your project which is on that land only, still you have to pay premiums to the govt for using that road’s area! And then you have fire dept’s noc as your building is of height more than 16 meters which most buildings has to be & for that you have to pay fire premiums! At the same time you have to get your land demarcated every three years & you have to demarcation fees to the govt. Yes there is property tax also, even for the vacant lands which you have to pay to the govt & all such premiums amount can go to Rs 500/sq ft, & this is in addition to the stamp duty amount per sq ft as mentioned above! Ok, if you have done with these figures then we have GST, which for real estate is average 12% of the flat cost,  for the flat buyer & can be even 24% for few items of real estate goods or services. And if you are buying a reedy possession flat (read home) the there is no GST but then don’t ask from where the builder who has spent at average of 18% of construction cost will be recovering, don’t guess, you are right, it will be recovered from the flat buyer’s pocket only, adding more to govt’s kitty & again stamp duty gain is there for govt for this added burden of GST loading on the flat cost! And it’s not finished as govt earns even by providing electric supply to the buildings builders build by making them pay for the infra or ask the builders themselves make the infra whereas rules (read law) says some nominal amount has to be paid per electric meter to the govt for electric supply & at present it goes to more than Rs 1 lac per meter, in many cases in Pune!

And lastly there is our dear Income Tax, how govt can survive without income tax as Nations’ development depends on you paying income tax, right? So, there is income tax for the govt which comes average 10% to 15 % & joke is there are Income Tax free schemes by the govt for affordable housing but for that also there is minimum tax i.e. 12%, this is my acquired knowledge as I am not a finance guy but an engineer, experts can guide me on this! If your brain’s hard disc is functioning properly now you can add all these “percentile” figures which are loaded on the real estate transaction is land & flat sale & then tell me who is the biggest gainers in real estate business now & whom the package will help in actual! And when I referred as govt in all above examples, it comes with many faces & many names which includes PMC as public or civic body, MSEDCL as power supply, Registrar of Stamps as IGR, Fire Dept, Central govt as well State finance dept for GST & yes “Super Baap” i.e. Income Tax dept, if at all you make any profit (read, in recent times, is what I meant)!

I am telling very clearly that I don’t say to wave all above charges or don’t apply any tax on real estate, or wave of all the loans by the builders as I am a builder but not a fool, to make such statement! Real estate understands that govt needs money for development of the country & for so many years the industry was happily (is it?) accepting all such burden by the govt from its multiple faces only because there was profit, means money in it! But now when there is over supply of end product (read homes) as well raw material i.e. land, confusion in policies, lack of infrastructure as well buying capacity of the home buyers has been reduced & on such background when govt as well society & media all expects the builders to lower the rates by cutting down their profits then why the govt is not doing that by cutting down size of its bite from the cake named real estate, is what I want to ask the govt! Because look at the remedies by Hon Finance Minister, giving package of Rs 70,000 crores is good but from where this figure has arrived & who can guaranty that it is enough for reviving entire real estate segment of the country & how? If you read the clauses the as usual they come with all safe guarded conditions & I wonder how many projects which really are in need of funding will get benefitted by this package. Because the news says it’s for affordable homes projects only, now there is no set definition of affordable & then the project or company should be free from any debt or such issues! Well, if a company is debt free or loan free then why it will need a package in first place & why only affordable homes project when most of the real estate’s projects are stuck because of wrong policies or irregularities in the policies of different dept’s of the govt!

It’s not about just giving loans & making the builder able to complete the buildings but about sale of the buildings units i.e. flats! As on one side people are unable to buy homes where all the infrastructure is available which makes any building a complete home & on another side where buildings are ready but has got no buyers because lack of proper civic infra around such buildings! At the same time only in Pune thousands of projects are hanging in between launching & completion because of policies like red line blue line of rivers or NOC from aviation dept, & all this for no fault of the developer but because of non-coordination between govt’s own faces (read depts.); now tell me, what package govt is going to provide such incomplete projects & what’s fate of such builders as well the flat buyers here? And then we have a cancer to deal with i.e. Illegal Constructions, these needs no funding, asks for no permission, gets no occupation certificate, nothing they need as they don’t exists, yet they hunt down clients which are seeking for legal homes but unable to buy the one!

Rs 70,000 crore package is welcome step, but more welcome step will be, stream lining entire policy makings & their execution also, for the real estate which will include demolishing every illegal construction too! Or else this package will melt down just the way rivers pour down sweet water in to the ocean which remains salty only despite all the sweet water inflow, keeping the sailors’ thirsty forever!

Sanjay Deshpande 
Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at U-Tube link below..



Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)


http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157627904681345/

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org
Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..
Think Green, Think Life